Secession Isn't Treason: Why Jefferson Davis Was Never Tried

The North was in a bit of a quandary after capturing Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  They kept him locked up, sometimes in chains, for months after the war ended.  If they tried him for treason, they might lose in court, because secession wasn't treason.

Trying Davis might result in a court decision that secession was constitutional, and the North would lose in court the principle they had illicitly won on the battlefield.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Salmon P. Chase advised against any trial for this reason.  Jeff Davis was released without trial because of it.

Secession was, and is, Constitutional. If the United States continues its headlong plunge into a statist, socialist tyranny, states may again secede from the Union.

Serious Discussions About Secession

Lawrence Auster at View From the Right is entertaining a serious discussion about secession:  how can the red states and the blue states separate into separate countries?  You can read it here. 

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, said after the war:

"The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form."

Davis was referring to constitutional liberty, the sovereignty of the states and the right of secession.  His words were prophetic. 

Secession would not be my first choice, but my last.  I would rather see the United States returned to the status of a constitutional republic where the limitations of the federal government are clearly defined, understood and respected.  The Left, however, is undertaking the greatest power grab in American history, determined to change the U.S. into something very different.  A division of the country may prove to be inevitable.